


Already Called Dibs

by paranoiapersonified



Category: Gravity Falls, Over the Garden Wall (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Bipper, Drabble, Edelwood Possession, Gen, I Don't Even Know, What are Mabel and Dipper doing in the Unknown?, Wirt as the Lantern Bearer, this has probably already be written before jeez, way to be original
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-14
Updated: 2015-07-26
Packaged: 2018-04-09 07:00:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4338488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paranoiapersonified/pseuds/paranoiapersonified
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You have no place here. These children are already mine."</p><p>A very short drabble in which Bill has to make an unscheduled appearance, much to the Beast's chagrin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, I know, in stead of working on any of the MANY other stories I have started, or doing some actual work for class, or, I DUNNO, SLEEPING, why don't I write some short, depressing shit that no one asked for, huh?: A Story of My Life.

The Beast stood over the small boy, who was clutching his twin sister to him, trying to shelter her from the cold, or from the forest, or from _him._ He supposed it was of no importance which. At any rate, he had failed.

The Edelwood crept along both of their legs, tangling with their arms. The growth was slow, but soon... Soon. By dusk tomorrow there would be two new trees for his lantern-bearer to chop down.

The Beast looked over his shoulder at where he could feel the pull of his lantern—like threads of a spiderweb, tugging him to it. The threads grew more and more taut, more and more urgent, as the boy walked away, putting distance between the Beast and his lantern. He sighed. It had been so many years … He really thought they were beyond all this by now. This … emotion. This regret and guilt. It was superfluous.

Something drew the Beast’s attention back to the boy’s face. A twitch, a flicker of life, something small. Seemingly meaningless. But the Beast knew it was anything but. There should be no hope left, no will to fight, if the edelwood roots had already taken hold. He stares at the child’s now-unmoving face, waiting.

He was not surprised, really, when the face twitched again, several minutes later, and then again. The Beast stood watching as the twitching gave way to the boy’s lips peeling back into a large, unnatural smile.

His eyes blinked open, but they were no longer those of the child’s. They glowed, like two dim, yellow lanterns in the woods. They blinked out of rhythm, as the now cat-like pupil scanned out into the woods. With great effort, the child’s head rolled carelessly to look directly at the Beast.

“Hello,” the not-child smiled at the Beast, tilting its head. The roots were still taking hold, so the child itself was still hopeless, still lost to the Unknown. This … whatever this was, it was something else entirely.

“You have no place here,” the Beast told the creature, slowly and steadily. Confidently. “These children are already mine.”

“See, about that …” the not-child’s eyes glowed brighter, shining with a threatening gleam. But it did nothing to uproot the Beast, did nothing to shake his steady hold on these children.

“... I already called dibs on Pine Tree.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Mabel … I’m scared.” 
> 
> “I know, Dip Dop.” Mabel was scared, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The prequel to the last chapter. Also short and a little ... morose. There are two more chapters coming after this. Possibly more if I decide to stick with the drabble theme.

“Mabel … I’m scared.” 

“I know, Dip Dop.” Mabel was scared, too. It felt like they had been walking forever, and in a way they had. They were lost. Hopelessly lost. It had been three days since they realized they had no idea how to get home, completely uncertain where they were. They had tried to go back, looking for the familiar forest they were so accustomed to, back to the Shack, but all they had found were unfamiliar trees. 

“I’m scared, too.”

They were hungry, but neither one mentioned it. They had made a game of it yesterday, when their moods were still high, talking about what they would eat first whenever they got back to the Shack, one-upping the other with outlandish amounts of food and expensive luxuries that neither of them had ever even tried. But now they were starving, and their good spirits were gone. Their stomachs only ached at the thought of food. 

Mabel shivered as the sun sank lower and lower along the horizon, and Dipper didn’t notice this time. She felt sorry for him in his short sleeves as the night came closer—at least she had her sweater. She wrapped an arm around him, rubbing at his shoulder, and he leaned into her appreciatively. 

“I don’t think we’re even in Oregon anymore,” Dipper mumbled, eyes fixed on the dirt. Mabel didn’t like this side of Dipper. 

They walked along quietly. They weren’t even looking up, weren’t even watching to find a familiar marker or something useful to end their wandering. They were just walking. Mabel knew they had to keep walking for some reason. They had to keep moving, so she kept walking. But as the sky got darker and darker, deep blue and pink around the edges, it became harder and harder to keep going. 

“I’m tired …” Dipper mumbled, his feet halting, dragging his sister to a stand still with her arm still wrapped around them. “We should stop. It’s getting dark.”

Mabel knew they shouldn’t. They had to keep going—they couldn’t stop—but she was tired too. “Okay.”

Dipper slipped out of her hold and settled himself down next to a tree. He had built a fire last night, and the one before that, but he made no move to collect any wood, to find some rocks to light a spark now. It was bitingly cold, colder than it had any right to be for summer, but Mable didn’t have the energy to do it for him either. She sat down next to him by the tree and shivered against him. 

“We’re going to be okay. We’ll get back to the shack, Mabel.” But his voice was quiet, so much less confident than it had been last night when he’d said it. Already his eyes were closing. 

“I know,” she told him as he wrapped an arm around her, pressing his head against her shoulder. 

“I know we will,” she said again, not at all certain in her words, as she started to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't think I'll continue this, but I've got some vague ideas about Bill and Dipper in this, so we'll see.
> 
> Thank you for reading. Comments are especially appreciated. Feel free to suggest stuff for me to write. I'm slowly working on like 6 short stories at once of all the great ideas people have.


End file.
